Resonance - Calvine 1990

May 30, 2014

Resonance - Calvine 1990

There’s an unwritten social rule that everyone either has their own UFO story or knows someone who has a UFO story to tell. (Test it out – you’ll be amazed at what you discover about people.) Personally, I have only ever witnessed a UFO once, back in Scotland around 1989-1990 and this is it...

I was sitting on the top deck of a double decker bus travelling into Edinburgh when I witnessed a strange object hanging in the sky over open fields some 2-3 miles away. Unfortunately, being in my late teens and more interested in where I was going and what I was doing that day, I shoved it to the back of my mind and filed it under “curious”. No more, no less.

For sure, I cannot explain exactly what I saw and I have certainly witnessed nothing else like it since. (Now I don’t obsess over this, I tend towards a more pragmatic take on such events. If it was something exotic, chances are I’ll never know what it was - and there’s no point being paralysed over such an uncertainty.) I don’t claim what I saw to be Dr X from Betelguese or Mr and Mrs X buzzing in from Alpha Centauri but, whatever it was, it was certainly unusual. This was no early morning waking dream or hypnagogic scenario – it was broad daylight, late morning to lunchtime, while travelling along the busy A90 near Dalmeny into Edinburgh. The object was hanging very low in the sky and because of this I had it in view for around roughly 8-10 seconds after I first noticed it. Eventually, the bus travelled past an artificial hill structure that sits adjacent to one side of that section of the A90 and after that I couldn’t see that bit of the horizon any more.

Mock-up of the diamond-shaped object I witnessed in the early 90s along the A90.

What did it look like? Well, what I was looking at was a straight-edged dark shape, easily distinguished against the sky. The “top” part was a rhombus and, fixed beneath the lower point of the diamond shape, was a tall, rectangular, vertical structure. From the distance there was no chance of detail whatsoever, it was simply an odd, dark shape (I recall thinking at the time that it was almost like a strange keyhole in the sky!) There was no mistaking it though, the contrast between the dark diamond-shaped object and the surrounding bright sky could not have been sharper.

My point is simply this: I witnessed a UFO and I make no claim as to what it was. I was not daydreaming, not hoaxing, not witnessing some exotic meteorological phenomenon that only happens once every 100 years, not having my brain ECM jammed by some intel operative in the back seat of the bus and so on. I saw something a bit strange, went “hmmm”, frowned a bit and carried on thinking about the day.

Now, while I mentioned the sighting to my parents that evening and received the usual muted feedback in return – again, pretty typical, after all what can you say to this kind of thing? - that’s as far as I went. I didn’t record the date or the time or anything like that, no follow-up at all in fact. This may strike you as disappointing and with the benefit of hindsight perhaps I should have explored things more. But hey, I was in my very late teens and had far more pressing concerns to occupy my mind! Generally speaking, I pretty much forgot about it overall - a process made considerably easier by the fact that my brain wasn’t really in the UFO zone at that point in my life.

However, some years down the line and I still recall that strange object I saw from the top deck of a bus in the early 90s. And what really brought this back into focus for me was something that came out from the MoD file release a few years back, the sighting of a large diamond shaped object allegedly spotted near the village of Calvine in 1990.

The woefully under-recognised Calvine story starts in somewhat vague fashion and pretty much stays true to that spirit throughout. The incident is alleged to have occurred around 9 o’clock on the 4th August 1990, where two men out walking a dog near the A9 at Calvine (north of Pitlochry) witnessed, for around 10 minutes, a diamond shaped object hovering low in the sky. This mysterious object, allegedly of around 25 metres in width, was eventually joined by one, possibly two, Harrier aircraft (identified as such by the MoD). One of the men had a camera with him and he managed to snap several pictures of the strange object before it left the scene, allegedly by shooting upwards at very high speed.

Six pictures showing the diamond shaped object and the jets then found their way to the offices of the Daily Record in Glasgow. The tabloid in turn passed the photographs to the MoD for comments. According to the released MoD files on this case available in the National Archive these images were received in mid-September and, by all accounts, appeared to result in some collective head-scratching.

All that remains of the Calvine photographs, one solitary sketch in the MoD files

All that remains of the Calvine photographs, one solitary sketch in the recently released MoD files.

Considerable effort appears to have been exerted over these photographs, not simply to ascertain if they were genuine or not (they were deemed to be genuine by MoD experts) but to try and figure out just what exactly the strange object in the photo actually was. It’s important to remember here that the photographs in question were not the usual hurriedly snapped and poorly focused images beloved of UFO lore. According to Nick Pope, who had in his possession a copy of one of the images, the image was “up close and personal” – in short, there was no mistaking the strange object. Clearly it was not a balloon, not a cloud, not a plane – not in the conventional sense at least – but something unknown, very real and very there.

Unfortunately, Pope was not in his infamous UFO desk role at the MoD in 1990 at the time of the actual event. However, when he took up the UFO reins in the MoD shortly after, he did inherit the aforementioned blow-up copy of one of the Calvine photographs. (Apparently, this image used to be something of a focal point every so often with other MoD staff who frequented that office.) Alas, the infamous wall decoration was to have a limited lifespan and was ultimately removed by the Head of the Division. Why exactly is not clear but there was a prevailing MoD suspicion that the object was (had to be?) secret stealth technology. Given such a stance, having a blow up of it stuck to the office wall was probably not the done thing. On this particular line, Nick Pope commented that:

"My Head of Division had convinced himself (wrongly, in my view and in the view of DIS colleagues) that this was a photo of 'Aurora'. Given US denials about hypersonic prototypes being tested in UK airspace and given the consequent assurances that had been given to Parliament by MoD Ministers, the continued existence of this photo posed a problem for him."

At the very least, what we can take from this is that the Calvine images did exist – or certainly existed at some time. It is also worthwhile noticing the strong leaning to a secret stealth tech explanation. This is something that is abundantly clear to anyone who has delved through some of the National Archive case file releases with its fine sprinkling of stealth tech snippets and articles. In the case of the Calvine incident, it is clear that thinking was along these lines and that the images were “a problem". By extension, they were also a potential political problem – given that the Americans had already provided assurances to parliament that they were not operating such technology in British airspace.

While the fixation on the Calvine images over the years is understandable, it has meant that the back story itself has gone unexplored. And yet here was a case that was taken so seriously by the authorities that there was even some formal guidance to MPs on how to handle any media enquiries on the subject. Clearly, it was expected that the Calvine incident was going to hit the presses.

So, in perhaps one of the strangest twists in the whole case, it is a curious footnote that the Daily Record did not cover the story. Now, I find that downright odd. Even allowing for the anonymity of the original witnesses – I wonder if they feel the same way some twenty years plus down the line? – everything was good to go. Except... something... someone... It didn't happen. Why?

As far as I can uncover there was no D Notice slapped on the Daily Record. Now, assuming that what had been photographed was the Aurora or some stealth tech equivalent, the strong arm of a D Notice might have been expected. Further, such a move would make perfect sense and is, whatever you may think, the right course of action given the sensitivity of the matter. But this did not happen and, as we know, there was even a briefing to MPs on this event so what happened to the coverage?

Was it purely an editorial team decision? Given that the coverage was going to generate some level of heat, perhaps the view was taken to just drop it? Or maybe, as Nick Pope has suggested, the images (prints AND negatives) never made it back to the Daily Record offices? Normally in such cases the prints and negatives would be treated differently but Pope speculates that in this case the MoD may have received both. Given the vague back story for the photographs, if the images went AWOL at the MoD then the Record would have been left with nothing tangible to go to press with. Could that be the case? Could it be that someone slipped up at the Daily Record? Or was it something that went back to the anonymous sources themselves? Was there a scare factor here? Did everyone agree that the more prudent course of action was for the whole matter to go out to pasture?

Even from a cold case perspective, I’ve always had a gut feeling that the details around the event may not be entirely accurate. The simple, almost clichéd, man out walking his dog with camera scenario – is this really how it panned out? I put a question mark over the dates and times of the original incident, I’m suspicious that the photographs were taken at a different time/date, with the photographer possibly sitting on them for a while and wondering what to do. The issue with the dates might explain why the MoD could not track the Harriers they identified – to be sure, Harriers operating in that neck of the woods (if that is indeed the correct identification) shouldn’t have been that difficult to track down.

In spite of the pervading murkiness to the circumstances, I am of the opinion that something of revealing significance occurred near Calvine. Given my own sighting, I can’t help but wonder whether I might have also glimpsed the fabled Aurora or some other black project stealth tech. Of course, the cold reality is that, I’ll never know - just as the Calvine incident may never be explained.

But here’s the thing, if it was an object along these lines, then the sobering fallout then and now is clearly that the United States (and/or A N Other nation) was (and therefore still is) operating a level of technology far - and I mean far - superior to anything else in the sky. Not only this, but that technology is tested in such a clandestine manner that there is neither regard for regulations or even national boundaries and security. The political potential upset from something like this malfunctioning and becoming hazardous for example is off the scale. I mean, what if one of those Harriers was armed? What if it fired? What if there was a collision?

Even now, is there anything even remotely similar to that level of tech that is publicly known? The answer is a simple: no. Not only this, if it was Aurora then clearly some sections of US Intelligence were being distinctly ungenerous to their British counterparts. (Of course, this is not necessarily beyond the pale but even so, such a denial must have implications.)

Personally, I have never really gone a bundle on the whole Aurora explanation; for a start there’s no evidence that Aurora even exists some 20 years after the sighting. I’m much more comfortable filing the Calvine UFO under the heading of “Unknown”. Until someone can actually prove it was Aurora and supplies actual physical evidence I'll continue to hedge my bets. Of course, there is a delicious irony here: in UFOlogy the notion that we have non-human operated craft - for which there is *seemingly* no evidence – gets formally laughed down the street. Yet, with the Calvine case, the MoD can glibly *believe* the strange object to be the fabled Aurora - for which there is also not one shred of evidence.

Every so often I pick up the Calvine thread to make a few enquiries; I have modest hopes, which makes the blank and unhelpful responses much easier to swallow. But I'm optimistic that somewhere out there rests further information and recollections waiting to be revealed – not to mention the very slim possibility that waiting to be uncovered again are six “up close and personal” UFO photographs. But, for now at least, the diamond-shaped spectre of the Calvine UFO continues to remain half-glimpsed.